Seventh Sunday in Siberia – March 1st

I think Sundays are my least favorite day of the week here. Not that we really do anything differently but I think of "home" a lot more. Sunday here takes me in my mind to church… And yes, I'm getting the service folders and the sermons but it's not the same – I miss the routine and the scripture readings and the singing and the joint praying and especially miss seeing the faces of people I know.

Now that the circus outing has passed we don't have anything special to look forward to – until comes the day we can leave that is! Arriving here in January and leaving in March sort of brings you down if you think about it too much – so we don't! There is some children's show coming Saturday that I asked Andrew to look into for us but I also read "sold out" on one of the posters for it so that might not be an option anyway. Time seems to go more slowly when you're waiting for something, right? Now that we just hang out until we get the passport it seems to be going slower – and I'm running out of enthusiasm for cooking and don't have many craft ideas… (I have been pleased what I've come up with so far!) They do have play-dough and stuff like that here but it's so expensive I just don't want to spend the money on it!

I'm am discovering if you break the day up into segments it seems to go quicker – I think I got this from Judy… Wake-up time until lunch… Lunch until dinner…dinner until bed. So in the morning we watch cartoons and do some activities in the apt – crafts, puzzles, etc. Then in the second part of the day we go outside for a long while if possible and often go to the store. The final part of the day is dinner, bath and a movie before bed. But you also note it revolves a lot around eating! LOL

One thing that really makes the passage of time seem real is Nathan Genya's teeth coming in! When we first saw him his bottom two teeth were gone and the new ones were barely poking out. Now his teeth are half-way grown! I remember in 2007 when we got JJ's picture taken for Christmas and his front two teeth were half-in. The photographer, a very good salesman, said you're not just buying pictures – you're buying memories. And every time I look at that picture of JJ on my desk at work I do have that memory of him with teeth half in and realizing how quickly time actually passes!

This morning we had a phone call from home and then Elena called and asked Genya about the circus… he enjoyed it ALL and couldn't think of a "favorite" thing to tell her! We had a nice conversation also about different things Russian and American!

We ate lunch around 12:30 – Genya had a banana and yogurt when he woke up but I've gotten into the bad habit of not eating breakfast. Need to get some cereal and start eating breakfast again! For lunch Genya had hot dogs, hardboiled egg, kiwi, yogurt and chips. I made my new "specialty" for Brian and I – (I know they have a name, just can't think of it right now) where you cut a circle out of a slice of bread and then fry an egg in the middle of it. Yumm, with real butter! I've eaten these a few days in a row now – cheap meal also! Brian added hot dog to his also. Then Brian and Genya played with legos for awhile and practiced some English – Stop/Go. Brian also tried to teach Genya tic-tac-toe but that wasn't as successful. Then it looked so nice out we wanted to go for a short walk.

Well the short walk was over 2-hours long with no breaks! We headed toward the river and saw all sorts of people walking on the ice so decided it had to be safe. We were a little ways out watching some old men ice fishing when all of a sudden there was a big "crack" noise – yikes! The ladies next to us headed for shore so we did also. Now we were in no danger but figured we had done our Siberian ice experience enough. We took a walking bridge across the river to what appears to be a reserve of some sort. We did a long walk around there and discovered a train and some other buildings we're not sure what they're for but was fun to look at. Brian and I were reminiscing that the last time we did a walk in this area on our "Third Sunday in Siberia" - it was at least 50-degrees F colder! This was much nicer! So anyway we sort of did a lap back around toward Karl Marx Street but wanted to discover some streets behind the stadium we found we hadn't walked on yet (surprised us also!). So we snaked behind the stadium with all sorts of people and worked our way up to Lenin Street. When we got to the front side of the stadium we realized that there was a celebration for the start of spring! There were lots of activities going on including some young men climbing a pole in their swimsuits/underwear – we think trying to grab a bag at the top. So we just kept walking as there were SO MANY people and headed toward home. Genya's reward for being a good walker (and a pretty good listener) was a stop at the store for an ice cream. We got the 7-ruble ones this time and they were sufficient. He made enough of a mess tho – gotta get out my Shout wipes for the first time! He understands us more all the time and we're trying to make more of an effort to speak only English to him but I slip into Russian more than Brian does!

While I uploaded pictures Brian and Genya headed out to get another internet card. Genya was high on his chocolate ice cream anyway but we think he thought it was a short walk to the corner grocery that he does with Brian each afternoon. Instead it was going to be a little longer to a kiosk selling internet cards! Oh well, wear him out! They came back but all the internet card places were closed so that's on tomorrow's list.

Supper was an invention of ground beef, red peppers, garlic and cucumbers all sautéed and then a tomato sauce. Then I added some short spaghetti noodles and shredded cheese. I think I've been giving Genya potions sized like when he first came to us – and now that is too much for him! So I only have him about half the size tonight and that was fine… He had a yogurt as his "salad" and a banana as dessert…and still wanted more yogurt so I told him that was at bedtime! He really eats at least 4 yogurts per day and three bananas! Then it was bath time – which went VERY well tonight and then a movie and bed for him… Last night at bath time I weighed him and he was 46.8 lbs! I think we had weighed him mid day the first time but he cruised right past being "cubed" to quote my mom without us catching it!

Have I mentioned how much Genya likes the movie "Cars"? We've been playing the Russian one but on the English prompt… then we can use the little DVD player and still be on the laptop.